Friday Randomosity

... I wish.

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It's 34 and quite foggy this morning. Temps on the hillside above town are below freezing, and they're having snow flurries in Fairbanks. That winter weather is not far away now. However, I note that the CBS affiliate here - usually the first to scream "snow" when no one else is talking about it - is the only one not calling for snow next week.

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The Cessna 185 that crashed in Denali National Park Wednesday afternoon killed the biologist aboard. In an amazing twist, the pilot - although severely burned - walked 20 miles before finding help.

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A couple of years ago, the residents of south-central Alaska were told that our natural gas supplies were going to start running low "if someone doesn't do something." Well, other than fuss about it, no one has done much. Part of the inaction is due to regulatory restrictions, and part was due to the low price of said gas, which made it uneconomical to explore and/or drill new wells.

It turns out that was a classic case of "penny-wise, pound-foolish."

At the same time, though, more foolishness abounds. There have been several releases of what amounts to the same story, over the last three months, stating that the gas companies are not allowed to turn off the gas as long as supplies remain steady. They go on to say that the local utilities all have contracts in place to supply their needs for 2009-2010. In other words, no shortage is expected until the winter of 2010-2011 at the earliest.

Then, in the same paragraph, we're told that, this winter, there could be outages, and rolling blackouts, and OMIGAWDWE'REALLGONNADIE! But... but ... didn't they just say the supplies are assured for this year?

The city, bless its darling collective heart & empty head, wants everyone to practice "cutting back" on the 26th. For two hours. Gee, that'll work ...

Assuming that 60% of the Anchorage population cooperates - and that's a HUGE assumption - usage will drop off a few percentage points for those two hours, immediately followed a correspondingly HUGE spike in usage as everyone simultaneously turns on their furnaces, dishwashers, laundry, and takes hot showers.

What could go wrong?

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One other headline in today's Daily Noise ... er, News caught my eye. The city's budget is woefully short for the foreseeable future. There's an opinion piece claiming that since the budget was based on "last year's lousy stock market" that it's time to revisit the budget.

Shouldn't we wait to see if the market's current upward bump is sustainable? I personally don't expect it to remain at this level; there's too much underlying instability, not to mention the possibility of churning the handful of stocks involved to present a rosy picture which may not accurately depict actual conditions.

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That's about it for this morning. Have a great Friday, folks, and thanks for stopping by.